


Send Me (Back) Home

by FlygonRider



Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: AU, Harpies, Mentions of Lian Harper - Freeform, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Pre-Poly, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 07:37:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15359493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlygonRider/pseuds/FlygonRider
Summary: Roy sometimes woke up on the mountain, back when he couldn't control his drinking.But the Harpy coming to eat him? That's new.





	Send Me (Back) Home

**Author's Note:**

> For polyshipprompts week day 4, AU!
> 
> I've been wanting to do a Harpy!Starfire AU for awhile now, so this is just me kinda dipping my toes in the water to see how I feel about maybe doing some more.
> 
> No prompts were harmed in the making of this fic.
> 
> Once again, kudos and comments are always loved!

Okay, so being tied to a pole on a chilly, foggy mountaintop was not the way Roy wanted to end his day.

He’d really rather be down in the city, beating up the hysterical preists who decided that stealing food was enough of a crime to be put to death so the Harpy would be appeased.

Stupid famines.

The sound of wingbeats came from behind him, and Roy twisted around as best he could to get a look at the Harpy as she landed.

She had dark skin and bright red dreadlocks, a broad, powerful chest and her wings looked like flames. If it wasn’t for the terrible circumstances, he would have thought of her as majestic.

She tucked her talons underneath her and fluffed her feathers out against the cold. “What is your crime, frailskin?” Her voice was deep and rumbled in her stomach.

“I-I stole bread. For my daughter. You don’t understand, the hunting’s been terrible this season, I had to!”

The Harpy cocked her head to the side. “You have a daughter?”

“Yeah, her name’s Lian, she’s about this tall,” he tried to gesture with one of his feet and ended up nearly falling over, “and she’s just the cutest thing!” He was definitely babbling now, but if it kept the Harpy from eating him for just a little longer, he didn’t care. “Have you ever seen a kid? Probably not, I mean, you’re pretty high up here-“

“Hush.” She held up a wing, and Roy went silent. Hopping off her rock, she began to pace in front of him, muttering to herself in an unfamiliar language, and sometimes chewing her wing-claws.

“Uh, do you need help?” Roy asked, hoping that the question wouldn’t send her into a Roy-skewering rage.

“Why did they send you here?” She fluffled out her feathers further, before shaking herself and sending condensation everywhere. “Are you a rapist? A murderer?” 

“No, no! I didn’t lie, promise!” Roy began to shiver, keeping his arms close to his sides.

“Than why did they send you here?”

“Because, well, things are really bad down in Starling. We had too much rain this year, and it destroyed the crops. People are starving. The priests thought maybe if they gave you another sacrifice, you would take the rains away; bring the crops back.”

“I have no power over the weather, though, why would they think that?” She descended into muttering again, more heated this time, like she was arguing with herself.

“Roy!” Jason’s voice echoed across the slopes, and the Harpy went still. “Roy!”

Jason came over the rise, and immediately ran over to Roy. “Oh thank the Goddess you’re still okay-“ He noticed the Harpy, and drew a gun from his waistband. “Get the hell away from him.”

The Harpy puffed herself up to twice her normal size, hissing lowly and making a clicking noise in the back of her throat.

“Jason, for fucks sake put the gun down!” Roy pleaded. “She hasn’t hurt me or anything, promise!” After several seconds, Jason lowered the gun, even if he refused to holster it. The Harpy’s growling reduced to a rumble, and her feathers went back to their normal level of fluff.

“Are you okay?” Jason hugged Roy tightly before pulling out a knife and going to work on the rope tying him to the pole.

“I’m _fine_ , Jason. Speaking of which,” the rope fell away, and Roy began carefully rubbing his wrists, “Jason, this is my friend, Harpy. Harpy, this is my boyfriend, Jason.”

She walked towards them, and when Jason’s hand went toward his gun, she frowned. “You do not have to fear me. If I wanted to kill you, I would have already.”

“And we’re very grateful for that, aren’t we, Jason?” Roy elbowed Jason until he made a sound that may have been affirmative and looked away.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, because I had to leave Lian at your mom’s place, and we need to get back to town before it gets dark.” He grabbed Roy’s hand and tugged him back towards the rise he had come over earlier. “Thank you Harpy, for not eating my boyfriend, but we really need to be getting home.”

Roy dug his heels in. “Jason, we both know that I can’t go back. They’ll probably think that I got eaten by now. I have to go somewhere else.”

Jason had gone silent, before he frowned and kicked a rock. “Fuck me.” He let go of Roy’s hand to scrub at his face. “I hate it when you’re right.”

“Don’t you have family in Gotham?” Roy prodded. “Maybe we could stay with them?”

“I suppose,” he managed to get out. “If you give me a few days, I can pack everything and get in contact with my older brother. I mean, who’d wanna stay here after their boyfriend got eaten by a murderous Harpy?”

“I am right here,” The Harpy said, baring her teeth.

“What should we do about me?” Roy frowned at the deepening gloom. “I can’t go back to town, and night’s about to fall.”

“You could stay with me.” The Harpy almost looked bashful. “My cave is warm and dry. There’s lots of prey.”

Roy pulled his hand from Jason’s grip and went over to her, bowing. “Thank you for your offer, Harpy. I would appreciate it.”

Jason frowned again as he watched them, but it was softer, like he had already resigned himself to whatever happened next. 

He walked over to the Harpy, craning to look up at her. “Keep him safe. Otherwise I’ll shoot you myself.”

Before Roy could say anything, the Harpy dipped her head, putting a wing to her teeth and carefully ripping out a secondary. Offering it to Jason in her wing-claws, she towered over him. “I swear on my wings to keep him safe, Jason.”

Jason took the feather, staring at it for a long moment before tucking it in his jacket pocket.

“I’ll be back here, at this exact spot, in a week, with Lian, and supplies,” Jason said, before he hugged Roy tightly.

At the edge of the clearing, Jason turned back to look at Roy, before he was swallowed up by the mist.

He felt the Harpy’s wing touch his shoulder. “Are you ready?” Her voice had gone soft, like she was almost ready for bed.

“I’m ready now,” Roy said. The Harpy spread her wing, letting him huddle underneath it against the coming darkness. And as they carefully picked their way up the mountain, he felt something tight in his chest finally rest easy.


End file.
